You bashed me in one post saying that you should not utilize google/yahoo local and facebook because they will rank higher than your actual site.

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One thing people should watch out for is the trap of easily burying your own site's rank under a pile of outside links and citations. Is having your business site 4 pages deep in Google Search, but all of these extraneous sites above you, in your best interest? If so, some refinement of approach to get your own site to page 1 might be in order. By this I mean, do what Google keeps repeating: Produce good content on your site. I guarantee this will be significantly more beneficial to your site's rank than Tweeting (screaming into the Grand Canyon) or posting status updates on Facebook (screaming at a much smaller group than you think).

Then in your next post, you said to take advantage of Google/Yahoo local and Facebook.

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That is your advantage, so if you haven't already, create your Google+/Places/Yahoo & Bing Locals/Facebook pages...

Can you clarify where your stance is?

What I stated and thought I made clear in my post on this thread towards the end in that these sites, along with optimizing your site, should bring nice results. My website is listed first on Google in my city when you search lawn care. Then I have 5 other links on the first page for my business that goes to yelp and facebook among others. Out of the 10 organic listings on the first page, my business has 6 of them! That's pushing away my competitions websites onto further pages. You need to remember, those other sites like facebook are placeholders and push others out. I 100% agree, optimizing YOUR website is priority #1!

You bashed me in one post saying that you should not utilize google/yahoo local and facebook because they will rank higher than your actual site.

Then in your next post, you said to take advantage of Google/Yahoo local and Facebook.

Can you clarify where your stance is?

Apparently your feelings were hurt. My apologies if that's what you took from that, but not only did I not "bash" you, if you look at that again, that wasn't a reply to you, but a general post on the idea.

As for clarification of my stance, I believe I pointed out "If so, some refinement of approach to get your own site to page 1 might be in order.". You need to strike a balance. I think you'd agree that having your own site above Angie's List would be more beneficial. If all of your citations dominate your web site in the rankings, I believe a bit of "tacking" is in order. I don't think you'll find a bigger proponent of The Big Three local pages than I am, and mention them quite often.

Citations are great, but I personally believe we'll see them losing strength sooner rather than later.

My website is listed first on Google in my city when you search lawn care. Then I have 5 other links on the first page for my business that goes to yelp and facebook among others. Out of the 10 organic listings on the first page, my business has 6 of them!

I think we're seeing different results. I'll shoot you an email with the screen caps if you'd like. Might be a difference we're seeing based on originating IP location. Might be an interesting experiment to dual monitor as Google loves "helping" the user get what's most relevant to them.

I think we're seeing different results. I'll shoot you an email with the screen caps if you'd like. Might be a difference we're seeing based on originating IP location. Might be an interesting experiment to dual monitor as Google loves "helping" the user get what's most relevant to them.

Google does seem to serve up what they know you have already searched for and viewed. Particularly if you 1+ your own site. You told Google this is a site you want to see.

I also notice they mix up the results on Google places often. I suspect it is helpful to clean out cookies, and temp internet files and also use different browsers and such when trying to check the results of your SEO efforts.

I think also it would be helpful to have others with different IP's to dual monitor as you say. Many times my search results are based on a city 30 miles from me because that is where the IP originates and some times it is closer to home.

The bottom line however is to look at your server web stats, and the webmaster tools both Google and Bing offers as well as how often does the phone ring.

Google does seem to serve up what they know you have already searched for and viewed. Particularly if you 1+ your own site. You told Google this is a site you want to see.

I also notice they mix up the results on Google places often. I suspect it is helpful to clean out cookies, and temp internet files and also use different browsers and such when trying to check the results of your SEO efforts.

I think also it would be helpful to have others with different IP's to dual monitor as you say. Many times my search results are based on a city 30 miles from me because that is where the IP originates and some times it is closer to home.

The bottom line however is to look at your server web stats, and the webmaster tools both Google and Bing offers as well as how often does the phone ring.

You're correct, Duekster, and absolutely Google's 7 Pack of results (the 7 slots set aside for local results) can be as fluid as regular search. Kirk's search results (not Kirk's knowledge of how search works) are a great example of this. He sees one set of results (6 organic listings on page 1), whereas I see his Google+ at the top of the 7 Pack, and then Yelp and Facebook links in the organic results, for a total of 3 links on page 1. If I search from a "clean" session, I see the same results as if I'm signed in. If I search from San Francisco, I don't see his Yelp listing.

I do actually monitor several sites search ranks from a variety of IPs, as well as when logged in or out of Google. I don't bother much for nationally-targeted sites (the organic results tend to be what they tend to be), but I do for regional and local. Being logged in to Google, or not, can create a sea change in the results served up. And, as you point out, same with IP. It's funny how, if I forget to make a change to something I use, I'm getting Ebay values in Euros and Google results for the United Kingdom.